Carved hearts from one piece of wood.

Step 1: Planning the Cuts.

I used a block of squared bass wood I got from the hobby store to start. Sketch your design on the sides. Next divide the sides up into thirds and draw lines for guides when you cut the rough shape.

Step 2: Roughing the Shape.

You want to cut the wood into a cross to start, hence dividing into thirds. You want to keep the middle. In image 2 you can see I added back the design. Images 3 and 4 are after cutting with a coping saw. Next step is to start carving. Either using power tools like a Dremel, or a whittling knife.

Step 3: Carving

I forgot to take more pictures while carving, but here is one where the pieces are almost separated. In this case I used a Dremel to get this far. That was the black set. The other set I did completely with a knife. The Dremel was slightly faster, but not by much. In both cases I got the pieces separated in an evening. For a knife I used a Flexcut Carvin' Jack. It's a great knife and sharp as a razor.

In both I used the knife to finish up the carvings. Did a light filling and sanding as I didn't want to lose the carve marks. Put on a stain and lightly sanded again to make it look worn and accent the carve marks. Then finished them with a wax finishing paste.